Taylor Fladgate & Yeatman was founded over three centuries ago in 1692 and has been independently owned throughout its history. The most famous of all Port houses, Taylor’s is regarded as the benchmark for Vintage Port and its declared vintages attract the highest scores and auction prices. Noted for their elegance and restrained power, their longevity and their distinctive scented character, these classic Vintage Ports are blended from the finest wines of the firm’s own ‘quintas’ or estates.

Taylor’s three famous properties – Vargellas, Terra Feita and Junco – occupy distinct geographic locations. Each contributes its own unique character and dimension to the subtle harmony of the blend. Select ‘Vineyards’ at the foot of this page to learn more.

In keeping with house tradition, the decision to declare the 2007 vintage was announced on St George’s Day, 23rd April, two years after the harvest. Commenting on the declaration, Taylor’s Managing Director Adrian Bridge noted: ‘The 2007 wines have been impressive from the start, displaying crisp, vibrant fruit and a wonderful balance. In keeping with the house style, the Taylor’s 2007 is showing great elegance, poise and a fine scented quality contributed by the wines of Quinta de Vargellas on which the blend is based.”

Taylor’s three famous properties – Vargellas, Terra Feita and Junco – occupy distinct geographic locations. Each contributes its own unique character and dimension to the subtle harmony of the blend. Select ‘Vineyards’ at the foot of this page to learn more.

In keeping with house tradition, the decision to declare the 2007 vintage was announced on St George’s Day, 23rd April, two years after the harvest. Commenting on the declaration, Taylor’s Managing Director Adrian Bridge noted: ‘The 2007 wines have been impressive from the start, displaying crisp, vibrant fruit and a wonderful balance. In keeping with the house style, the Taylor’s 2007 is showing great elegance, poise and a fine scented quality contributed by the wines of Quinta de Vargellas on which the blend is based.”

As elsewhere in the Douro Valley, conditions on the Taylor’s estates were sunny but relatively cool for most of the summer, with occasional light rainfall. This resulted in a gradual and balanced ripening of the grapes and healthy leaf canopies showing no signs of the heat damage which can occur in hotter years. Two weeks of very warm weather at the beginning of September brought the crop to full maturity but preserved the excellent natural acidity and vibrant fruit flavours resulting from the relatively cool summer. Picking started at Quinta de Vargellas on 17th September and at Quinta de Terra Feita and Quinta do Junco on 24th September.

All the classic Port grape varieties performed well in 2007 and this contributed to the balance and multi-dimensional character of the wines. In addition, the individual character of each of the Taylor’s estates expressed itself to the full, adding a layer of complexity to the Taylor’s Vintage Port blend.

The Taylor 2007 Vintage Port is a beautifully elegant and complete wine from the most famous Vintage Port house, the perfect balance of power and refinement. As always, it is one of the most highly rated Ports of the vintage, a classic in every sense.

The wines of Quinta de Vargellas traditionally form the ‘backbone’ of the Taylor vintage port blend, and this is also the case of the 2007. This outstanding estate, recognised as one of the world’s finest vineyards, was acquired by Taylor in 1893 although its reputation as a source of the finest ports dates back to the 1820’s. Located in the remote eastern reaches of the Douro Valley, Vargellas is renowned for its elegant, scented wines, with their fine focused fruit and well integrated sinewy tannins. It is also known as a source of one of the rarest and most collectible vintage ports of all, Vargellas Vinha Velha, made in very small quantities from the produce of the oldest vines on the estate. To learn more about this rare wine, please select VARGELLAS VINHA VELHA 2007 at the top of the page.

Quinta de Terra Feita

Also a traditional component of Taylor classic vintage ports, the wines of Quinta de Terra Feita are full bodied, powerful and full of rich berry fruit flavour. They provide depth and volume to the blend. Located on the warm lower slopes of the Pinhão Valley, Terra Feita is one of the oldest port estates. Already identified as a source of the finest ports in the 1757 classification of Douro vineyards, Terra Feita has supplied Taylor’s with outstanding wines since the beginning of the last century. Acquired by Taylor’s 35 years ago, the property has been the site of pioneering work in batch planting and vineyard landscaping.

Quinta do Junco

Quinta do Junco is another famous old Pinhão Valley estate which by 1761 had achieved ‘feitoria’ status, then the highest classification for a port vineyard. A relatively recent addition to the Taylor stable, Junco’s contribution to the Taylor vintage port blend is small but increasingly important. Occupying a steep south facing hillside to the west of the Pinhão river, the vineyard is well exposed to both sun and wind, benefiting from long hours of sunlight but avoiding the intense heat of less well aerated locations. The vineyard includes 15 hectares of very old vines. The Junco wines are massive in scale, lending an additional layer of density and structure to the blend.

Opaque, purple black colour with a narrow violet rim. Characteristically stylish and racy, with a nose of dense blackcurrant and woodland fruit overlaid with discreet herbal nuances and scents of violet and rose petals. As usual the classic Taylor elegance and understatement conceal the wine’s energy and vigour. On the palate it displays the lean, sinewy and tightly knit tannins which are so much a feature of the Taylor style and the vibrant and clearly delineated fruit flavours and which are the hallmark of the 2007 vintage.

How can a wine of such monolithic proportions have such elegance, lift, poise and finesse? Laced with violets,
cassis, rose petals, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and tremendous black fruits.

How can a wine of such monolithic proportions have such elegance, lift, poise and finesse? Laced with violets,
cassis, rose petals, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and tremendous black fruits. Epic tannin presence and integration.
Magical freshness and floral perfume, impeccable seamlessness and persistence. It’s as good as the 94, 85, 70,
35 and 24. The first drinking window I’ve ever written beyond 2100!

Nothing to do with the Clare Taylors, this is the real thing from Portugal: a little black bliss bomb that's chockers with truffles, black chocolate, black tea tannins, licorice and fudge.

Nothing to do with the Clare Taylors, this is the real thing from Portugal: a little black bliss bomb that's chockers with truffles, black chocolate, black tea tannins, licorice and fudge. In this, its extreme fancy, it has a rather disarming, slightly granular, quincy texture in the tannin department. There is a brilliant lash of fiery spirit in the tail, and the whole gadget leaves the drinker feeling slightly assaulted as much as thoroughly seduced, and it's more than simply having one's hair mussed. It needs 25 years to relax, but is a scrunchy, exciting challenge right now. Who knows how good it'll get?

The Taylor Fladgate 2007 is one to lay down for your grandchildren. This is rich, inky port with huge concentration.

The Taylor Fladgate 2007 is one to lay down for your grandchildren. This is rich, inky port with huge concentration. There is plenty of tannin in a full, fresh and juicy palate packed with black cherry, blackberry, licorice, plum and chocolate flavours. The finish is long, elegant and silky with great acidity and freshness. Less is more here and all will be revealed in decades down the road. Delicious now, but will live for 50 years easily.

“Remarkably deep in colour, almost to the verge of being opaque. The nose is very well defined but much more introverted than Fonseca – aloof, stentorian, correct. The palate is full-bodied, beautifully defined, great weight that is channelled in one direction. Brilliant focus here, less extrovert than Fonseca of course but more refined and sophisticated. Certainly this is a Taylors for long-term ageing, one can feel it reserving its energy for 20-years down the line. Great backbone here. Very harmonious towards the finish that really caresses the palate, with a hint of white pepper lingering in the mouth. Wonderful.”

“Black purple; fine, closed combination of refined ripe fruit and subtle minerality; rich, concentrated, moderately muscular middleweight Taylor; lovely elegant, balance with a very refined tannin; sweet, close wrought wine, long in the mouth, ripe black cherry fruit and subtle minerally aromas; tenacious flavour, and with a long, fragrant finish which mirrors the gently mouthcoating character of the mid palate. The persistent fine, dry tannin on the finish suggests, as usual, that this will need those 15-20 years bottle age. Characteristic poise, class, aromatic complexity and finesse from the Vargellas component. Typically refined and complex Taylor in a more restrained expression.Very fine.”

“The 2007 Taylor-Fladgate is a beautiful synthesis of the inherent power of Taylors and uncompromising beauty of the 2007 vintage, and the combination is stunning.”

“The 2007 Taylor-Fladgate is a beautiful synthesis of the inherent power of Taylors and uncompromising beauty of the 2007 vintage, and the combination is stunning. The refined, youthful and very complex nose offers up scents of cassis, black cherries, pepper, gentle tarry notes, woodsmoke, anise, soil and cedar. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and very light on its feet for a young Taylors, with great elegance and intensity on the attack, ripe, seamless tannins, and a huge spine of acidity that adds vibrancy to the fruit, purity to the soil expression and laser-like focus on the
impeccable, long finish. This is a big boy that dances on the palate right from the outset,and is a remarkably stunning young bottle of Port. 2035-2135.”